
“Doing research takes time.” “We don’t have enough users.” These are common issues that come up when it comes to user-centered research. An easy solution: the UX Check, also known as ergonomic evaluation, heuristic analysis, ergonomic audit, usability analysis, expert review or usability assessment.
The UX Check makes it possible to evaluate a website and propose numerous recommendations for improvement in record time, without the need for users. Whether in terms of ergonomics (Colombo & Pasch, 2012), credibility and persuasiveness (Nemery & Brangier, 2014), or eco-design (Designers éthiques, 2022), the UX Check adapts to your needs.
The UX Check helps you get your projects off on the right foot by identifying the most problematic flows, elements and screens, and then verifying these hypotheses with user tests. It’s not just an analysis tool, but a true steering tool that guides projects through their key stages and keeps them moving forward.
UX Check objectives and benefits
The main objective of the UX Check is to identify obstacles and friction points that users may encounter. By improving ease of use, efficiency and user-friendliness, this method significantly increases user satisfaction and loyalty, reduces long-term development costs through proactive problem correction, and enhances product performance in the marketplace.
A well-executed UX Check aligns the user experience with the customer’s strategic business objectives, guaranteeing superior consistency and quality across all user touchpoints.
Use cases
The UX Check, or usability analysis, is used in a variety of contexts to improve user experience and ensure the quality of digital interactions. Here are several common use cases for this method:
- User interface optimization: Improve user interface usability and efficiency by identifying obstacles and friction points.
- Reduce bounce rates: Analyze pages with high bounce rates to discover the underlying reasons and suggest modifications.
- Increase conversions: Modify design elements to better guide users towards conversion actions.
- Improved engagement: Identify elements inhibiting user engagement and optimize interaction to increase active participation and time spent on the site.
- Pre-redesign assessment: Provide an expert review before a major redesign to identify what’s working well and what needs to be improved.
- Continuous improvement: Use the UX Check as a tool for continuous improvement of digital products and services.
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Customer cases
The UX Check can help an organization evaluate and improve its projects in several ways. Here are a few examples:
- Evolution of an existing interface: A customer wants to evolve its interface to align with increased UX maturity. The UX Check provides best practices for improving the product.
- Support for developers: A team of developers with no ergonomic expertise uses the audit to obtain an outside view and advice, helping them to make critical decisions.
- External design audit: A customer has screens designed by an agency and wants an external audit for constructive criticism. The UX Check makes recommendations.
- UX problem identification: A customer identifies problematic flows in an application and prefers to correct fundamental problems of ergonomics and persuasion before proceeding with costly user testing.
Limits and constraints
The UX Check is an effective tool for improving the user experience, but it also has certain limitations and constraints. Before getting started, it’s essential to consider the following points:
- Cost and time: UX Checks can be costly and time-consuming, especially for complex products or large websites.
- Subjectivity: Despite the use of best practices, UX Checks can be subjective, with listeners having different interpretations of the same interfaces.
- Lack of user context: UX Checks are often conducted without direct interaction with real users, which can lead to a lack of context.
- Limitation of recommendations: Recommendations may be limited by existing technological, budgetary or organizational constraints.
Complementary methods
To enhance the effectiveness of the UX Check, several complementary methods can be used:
- User testing: Gather direct feedback from users by observing their use of the product under controlled conditions.
- Analytics and performance measurement: Track product usage and performance before and after proposed modifications.
- Benchmarking: Compare UX features with those of leading or competing products.
- A11Y audit: Focus on compliance with accessibility standards to ensure usability by people with different types of disability.
- Wireframing: Create simple visual representations of interfaces to illustrate the recommendations resulting from a UX Check.
Conclusion
The UX Check is a fast and effective method for evaluating and improving user experience without the need for real users. It identifies the weak points of a site or application and offers concrete recommendations for optimizing usability, persuasiveness and even eco-design.
By integrating this method into your process, you can guide your projects towards success and significantly improve user satisfaction.
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